Tuesday, September 6, 2011

"The Little Boat" by Nelson Boles

It’s become a cliche reaction now, but I still feel compelled to say that when I see work like this (and Nelson’s other student film: “This one time…” http://vimeo.com/4566083) I can’t understand why the major studios are not grabbing these artists and putting them to work on fresh, new hand-drawn films. This sensibility could truly reignite interest in hand-drawn animation. Films like this, or Ian Worrel’s shorts (http://vimeo.com/user407933/videos), and the various Gobelins shorts, among many other examples which could be named, show that stylistically and thematically there is still so much new ground to be covered with both hand-drawn short films and features which are not merely re-treads of earlier Disney or Warner Bros. styles.

On the reason why studios are not working on styles such as these, it is from a marketing standpoint that it would be something new to try and pitch and sell work like this on a grand scale.

Sure, we as animators and artists deeply appreciate short films and short pieces like this (and would love to see it placed on a much larger scale), but the general masses are not quite as in tune to the more individual styles and can only compare what they see to the 3D films today.

The same concept goes for when 3D was first pioneered as an animation tool. 3D was not entirely marketable and took years to become noticeable to the public. It will take time also for independent shorts to surface to the major studios.

In the meantime, we keep getting inspiration from little pieces like this and definitely we should be on the look out for Nelson Boles in the future.